Better to Have Loved and Lost
by HuGaBblesEaL
Summary: AU Oneshot! Lucrecia's life is shattered by a force that was supposed to protect her. Instead it killed all she loved. Can vincent save her from one determined to protect her from love? VincentxLucrecia


_A/N: Hello dear readers, this is a story me and my older brother wrote (90 my brother) and he wanted this to be posted up here so here ya go nathan. This is a Vincent/Lucrecia story. This was not originaly a fanfic but we changed names and characteristic so it would match. Vincent and lucretia seemed to be the perfect characters to these so yeah, all vincent/lucrecia fans will like this(I hope) (although I am a yuffentine fan this is NOT one)_

_DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own ff7, nor terra_

Guilt Of A Maiden

_Never forget._

How those words haunted her. Like a dream of the death of a loved one, like a stabbing pain from an interior wound with no hope of healing.

_Never forget._

Gentle tears ran down her face, her emerald eyes shut tightly in pain and guilt. How could she have been so blind? So naïve? It cost them, it cost them all too much for her ignorance. If only she could…

_Never forget!_

She winced, the pain more excruciating with every heart beat, with every breath of life that she felt she did not deserve. Tears rolled, pain throbbed, guilt swelled. The very thought of them, each one of them, placing their lives in front of hers, protecting her, loving her. They pledged to die for her, and what did she do in return other than force them to prove their vow?

_Never forget! _

The wind blew harshly, as if to strike at her for her sins, to punish the unthinkable, the unforgivable. The sky darkened, thick clouds choking out the red sun, veiling the golden light. The ocean roared beneath her, green waves striking savagely at the foot of the cliff on which she stood, the bleak horizon wide before her. The wind grew bolder, seemingly attempting to throw her off the precipice, into the dark waters below. How she deserved it!

_Never forget!_

Their faces came to her, but unlike how she remembered them. They were empty of the tender care she recalled, replaced by hate, rage, and sadness. They called out to her, crying her name as if it was poison in their mouth, desperate to remove it off their pale lips. She cried, begging for forgiveness, but knowing they knew only contempt for her now. She had struck them all to death, why should they pardon her?

"_Is this the reward for believing you, for protecting you?"_ one demanded.

"_Where did we fail you? Why did we deserve this? We all believed you loved us…as we loved you!"_ Another cried.

"I did cherish you, down to the last. But I could not stop it! It was too much to bear!" She pleaded, tears flowing more freely.

_Never forget! Never forget!_

"Lucrecia…we dedicated our lives to you. You were our hope, our dreams, our purpose to strive. Yet…to you, we were as dust and ashes!"

"You're wrong! I wanted only your happiness!"

"_But" _one said, voice dripping with vile, "_you had us slain!"_

To this, she could not reply. The faces contorted with anger. She drew back, frighten by them. They were no longer the friends she knew, but strangers she hurt, and she felt they rightfully wanted to hurt her in vengeance. All but one stared at her. That one looked downcast, eyes averted, all life that it had sapped away. It was a face she knew well.

"Vincent…" She whispered, "Please, look at me."

Yet the light blue eyes that were now a dull grey never turned her way. Lucrecia reached out for the fading figure, only to feel the wind's harsh touch. Out of them all, he was the one who mattered most.

"Vincent?"

Finally it turned, soft eyes still saddened, expression still cursed. The lips opened slowly, carefully, deliberately, to say. _"I hate you."_

_Never… forget…_

Then they all vanished, pulled violently to an oblivion she had sent them to. Her heart seized, her throat choked, her hands shook, her tears reddened, and an emptiness deeper than she ever felt overtook her. Her head rose up, mouth opened wide, and emptying her lungs out as a cry of the purest agony escaped her, leaving her without strength or spirit.

Time slipped away as quickly as she lay on the edge of infinity, with no power to rise up so she could throw herself over the endless precipice and be lost to it forever. Twilight came swiftly, then the rays of sun burned her as it claimed it's time. The moon came again, only to yield once more to the morning star.

She no longer cried, the pain went away as did the guilt, but nothing else resided in her. Her body had become a hollow shell, with no sustenance to fill the void. Had her heart stopped beating she would grow no colder.

Lucrecia… 

Her eyes opened slightly at the calling. Yes, that was her name, long ago. But she had no use for it now, for all who knew it had perished. She closed them once more.

Lucrecia.

She whimpered, recognizing the voice of the man she loved, the one who took all she had left away and abandoned her in a weakened state with nothing to live or die for. Her memories of him were haunting her. How she deserved it.

"Lucrecia. Please, look at me."

Terror seized her as she awoke from restless sleep, seeing the face she had reached out for in what felt like another life. Vincent was looking down at her, a sad smile on his face, his short raven black hair clinging to his friendly features because of the moist air from the sea below.

"Vincent?" She breathed, unbelieving. "This cannot be."

He was lifting her, gently carrying her off the grass she had laid on for a length of time unknown. "It will be alright. I'm here."

"You came…for me?" She wept.

"I'll always be here for you."

"Oh, Vincent." She wrapped her arms around his neck weakly, feeling the warmth of his breath. "I love you."

NEVER FORGET! 

She screamed, startling them both. The young man dropped her before he could recover. She sprung up to her feet, fleeing away from him. Vincent sped after her, catching her before she reached the end of the drop. She struggled to free herself, but he held her fast.

"Leave, please! Don't get near me! I will be the cause of your death if you don't, as I did the others!" She cried out, trying desperately to pry herself loose from his grasp.

"Lucrecia, come to your senses. I was there! You didn't cause any of it! The fault does not lie with you!" Vincent was shaking her, causing her to look into his eyes, soft and blue. The same ones she remembered, and always would.

"I cannot control it." She whispered darkly. "Go, before I lose you again, with no hope to ever find you."

"Go where? To whom?" He reasoned. "I have sworn to…"

"Then I remove your oath from you! Leave, please!" Lucrecia urged. "Leave…before it is to late."

The wind howled with a sudden rage. The sky darkened with unnatural swiftness, covering the lands in darkness. Lucretia gazed at nearby trees being mercilessly blown in the wind, tearing out of the earth as the clouds grew darker, and the waves of the sea increased in size, crashing against the cliff face violently, resonating the growl of deep thunder. Yet both of them felt nothing of the drastic changes around them. The cry of the wind they could discern, but not so much as the caress of a breeze befell their skin.

Then a voice sounded, like the clash thunder in a windstorm. "Depart from him, my lady, for he strikes at thee, causing great harm."

Lucrecia turned away from Vincent, shielding him with her body as she cried into the wind. "Leave him be! He does nothing but love and cherish me as I do him! Stay your hand!" She commanded.

"Nay! For the sadness in thy heart pleads for peace and solace as mightily as the young warrior cries for the young maiden he desires." The voice rumbled, causing Vincnet to take a step back in fear. "To this calling, I must obey."

"He causes no harm on me, save for the fear of losing him!" She objected. "Can you not sense it? Our bonds are strong and true, as the moon embraces the stars! Do not destroy it!"

The wind howled in protest, and slowly, a figure appeared before them in human form, yet with no features of it's own, a shadow of a man made of mist and gloom. "Is this the same one who struck at thy heart as he lashed thee with vile words and a sharpness of tongue? For he I cut off first from life. How yet does he still breath in life?"

Vincent stepped forward, the long sword at his hip ringing out as he drew in from its sheath. "You were hasty, false guardian. Your overconfidence caused you to fall wide of your intended blow."

"Fool!" The wind creature boomed. "Thou should never have returned to seek once again to wound my lady."

The young man came as if to attack the creature, but Lucrecia grabbed hold of his arm, pulling him back.

"I will not allow him to take you away!" Vincent said bitterly, challenging the figure in the storm.

Lucrecia reached for his face, turning it toward her own. He saw the plea in her eyes and felt his resolve weaken. She took his hand in hers, stroking it gently. "My friend…for my sake and for the feelings we share, depart. This way, at least, we shall know the other is alive…and we can dream of what could have been, but will never be."

Inside his being, the young man felt amiss, a sudden void that melted his heart away, the desire to endure fleeing him. He stared, unbelieving, his sight hazing with tears. "My love…"

A single tear escaped from her, following the fair skin of her cheek, touching the curve of her mouth, until it finally fell to the earth.

The guardian erupted in a boiling rage, "A tear! This shall not be born! Death to thee!"

Something with the appearance of a sword materialized in its hand as is flew forward, the storm in its entirety with it. The young man could only turn his head toward the creature as is descended upon him, his helplessness complete. The guardian raised its weapon, thirsting for its victim's blasphemous existence. As flesh was pierced and blood flowed, a deafening silence soon became stronger than all the power of the raging wind.

Lucrecia did not cry out nor did she shed another tear. Instead, she laughed, as merrily as at a joyous festival of times long past. She had finally achieved that which she desired most, to pay for her sins. With that last thought, she fell.

"No!"

Vincent and the guardian cried out as one, the young man catching her in his arms. The creature of wind retreated, it's voice shaken. "I have harmed my lady! I have broken a sworn oath to which my life was the price in failure."

The young maiden did not respond to the pleads of her love as he shook her, his grovels for her to awaken gone unheeded. Vincent, face drained of colour, his blue eyes unable to focus, shook with a terrible rage and charged the guardian, blade raised high, his voice an uncontrolled cry. "You killed her! Be damned, dark spawn! Be forever damned!"

Yet it was a pebble thrown to clash a sheer rock mass. With a mighty blow, the guardian struck the young man, throwing him over the precipice into the harsh, cold waters below without so much as a second thought. Its concentration was on the maiden, it's mind broken at the sight of her blood staining the earth.

"Nay, the end can not be so cruel, to thee, fine lady."

Northern winds shall carry away, and, winter itself will embrace 

_**And starlight nights will be beheld**_

_**No stranger shall touch, nor any adventurer find**_

**Into crystal chalices thy life will reside** Harm has become thy closet lover, and pain the sole companion 

_**Hath Terra become a wasteland of spawns for use of evil alone?**_

_**Protection from it's influence is needed**_

_**Freezing fields shall be thy shield**_

_**To have a sparing from darkness**_

_**Oath is kept, and vow respected**_

_**And all to which you will be healed**_

_**Rest, fine maiden**_

_**For, in time, thy will be the only soul**_

_**In Terra**_

Epilogue

When Vincent awoke, it was to great pains. Body numbed and chilled with the unforgiving cold of the ocean, none would tell how long he lay there. He remained still on the sandy beach. His raven hair had grown. His clothed now battered and torn. His eyes like fire. The water that carried him now battered him with force, fresh wounds stung him with evil.

Yet, the greatest wound would bleed still long after the others become faded scars. A blood red was the fading sun that evening, a blood red that now remained the clour of his eyes. A blood red that would coat all his memories. For this one and its undying pain he could never…

…forget.

_N: Vincent is my favorite character. And I believe that his life as well as the reason he is so well liked is his tragedy. Thank you for taking the time to read my tale._

_A/N:And there ya go! the only thing i did was changes to names and correct a few mistakes _


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